Friday, January 31, 2014

A Devens man was arrested in Indiana for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet in 2009, according to Indiana State Police.

David M. Walsh, 50, was arrested Friday after a nearly four-year investigation that was complicated by his use of an alias, police said in a statement.

Indiana State Police started an investigation Jan. 31, 2010, for an incident of sexual misconduct with a minor that took place on or about Nov. 29, 2009, in Washington County , which is in southern Indiana. Police said Walsh met a 14-year-old girl on the Internet and “gained her confidence.”

Using the alias David M. Walls, he allegedly arranged to meet the girl at an address on North Franklin School Road in Washington County, where the two had sex, police said.

Walsh, who was 46 at the time, knew the girl was 14 years old, police said.

He “was using the alias David M. Walls in his effort to go undetected by police,” the statement said.

Because of the alias and false addresses, police said they were not able to immediately identify Walsh as the predator. But investigators said Walsh continued to contact the girl, and police collected numerous mailed items and communications. In October 2013, police identified David M. Walls as Walsh, officials said.

Earlier this month, police received a tip that he would be in Indiana to meet with the girl, who is now 18, and her family. Police located and arrested Walsh in Borden, Ind., and charged him with sexual misconduct with a minor, child solicitation, and inappropriate communication with a minor.

He was being held Sunday at the Washington County Jail in Indiana while awaiting his first court appearance.

Police said there could be additional victims and asked anyone who knows or has come in contact with Walsh in person or online to contact the Indiana State Police….

A 25-year-old Scituate man was indicted on numerous charges including rape of a child and possession of child pornography after he allegedly had sex with at least three minors he met on Facebook, according to the Plymouth district attorney’s office.

Daniel J. Reilly was indicted by a Plymouth Grand Jury on 15 counts of rape of a child, three counts of aggravated rape of a child, and 22 counts of possession of child pornography, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. He was also indicted on eight counts of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct, four counts of dissemination of matter harmful to a minor, and one count of annoying or accosting a person of the opposite sex.

Reilly allegedly met four girls, ages 14 to 15, on Facebook or other social media websites. He told the girls that he was an 18-year-old attendee of Scituate High School and sent them photos of his exposed genitals, according to the district attorney’s office.

Three of the girls agreed to meet Reilly at various points during the summer of 2013. He allegedly had sex with them, the DA’s office said.

“We must educate our children about the very real dangers of physical, emotional, and psychological harm that exist on social media sites,” said District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz in the statement.

Scituate police obtained search warrants for Reilly’s i-Phone and computer. After a forensic examination, officers said they found 12 photos and 10 movies depicting child pornography.

Reilly is due back in Brockton Superior Court on Feb. 7 for his arraignment.

A man arrested Wednesday moments after police said he participated in a deadly home invasion in Dorchester pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of unlawful possession of a firearm.

Police allege that Cedrick Slayden, 18, of Roxbury, and another man, both masked, forced their way into a unit inside 85 Esmond St. shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday. A resident of the apartment, however, opened fire with his own weapon, fatally injuring Slayden’s associate, police said….

A Yarmouth man allegedly told investigators after his arrest on child pornography charges that he had taken photographs of young children at a Cape Cod beach, according to records filed in federal court in Boston.

Adam Polakowski, 45, is being held without bail by US marshals pending a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday in US District Court. He was arrested by agents from the US Department of Homeland Security at his home this week.Polakowski the pervert?

According to an affidavit by DHS Special Agent David Di Sanzo, Polakowski came to the attention of law enforcement in August when they discovered that he had allegedly exchanged 36 e-mails with an Arizona man already targeted for child pornography.

Authorities allege that three of the e-mails included 23 images and one video of a child being sexually assaulted by a man. The child, according to authorities, has been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited children as a “victim of child pornography.’’

The two men also wrote, in graphic detail, about their sexual interest in children. In one e-mail, the Arizona man allegedly described his plan to lurk in the parking lot of a family-oriented park, waiting for a child to break away from the parents….

But always remember the school and government love you kids, so much so that they will send you away to wars based on lies and steal your futures from you after loading you up with student loan debt. You can chew on that for a while, kids!

"Utah school district apologizes for tossing meals" Associated Press, January 31, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — A school district apologized Thursday to outraged parents after about 30 students at a Salt Lake City school had their lunches thrown out because of outstanding balances on their food accounts.Ever here of putting it on the tab? And how $ad is it when $chools are in the $ame cla$$ as all the other money-grubbing in$titutions the$e days?

School District spokesman Jason Olsen said the district is investigating what happened at Uintah Elementary. ‘‘This was a mistake. This was handled wrong,’’ Olsen said .

Erica Lukes said her 11-year-old daughter came home Tuesday and reported that officials had taken away her pizza and thrown it out.Not the healthiest lunch going, but better than nothing.

The action was ‘‘humiliating and demoralizing,’’ Lukes said.Kind of like something a BULLY would do?

Students were given their lunches and then went to a pay station where their accounts were checked, Olsen said. Students whose lunches were thrown out were given milk and fruit, a standard practice when students don’t have lunch money, he said.The 21st-century bread-and-water, and I guess the school is preparing them for their futures in prison and the total surveillance society. Kids are a-learnin'!

Officials started notifying parents Monday that children were behind on the payments.What, they not part of the 1%?

QUINCY — A Weymouth woman who works in the cafeteria at the town’s middle school pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of statutory rape for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy during the Thanksgiving and New Year’s holidays.

Janelle Foley, 32, was arrested Wednesday by Weymouth police for allegedly assaulting the victim twice at holiday parties on Nov. 24 and twice on New Year’s Day, according to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office.

Foley is an employee at the Chapman Middle School, but the alleged episodes took place at private holiday parties, not at the school, prosecutors said….

QUINCY — A state Department of Transportation worker is accused of viewing child pornography on his computer at Registry of Motor Vehicles headquarters here after he allegedly brought a USB drive with images to work with him.No wonder you are waiting so long.

Andrew R. Fanguiaire, 48, was arraigned today in Quincy District Court where he pleaded not guilty and bail was set at $5,000 cash, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.

The Weymouth man was also ordered by District Court Judge Diane Moriarty to wear a GPS monitoring device if he posts bail, to stay away from children under the age of 18, and to stay away from parks, schools, and other places where children congregate.

Maybe I'm insane, but I can't find a more current item on a blog search or Google and I'm tired of wasting time on it. The point is the GPSs do not always work.

“We allege that this defendant, a state employee, possessed child pornography and accessed it from his home and at his workplace,” Coakley said in a statement. “We thank MassDOT for their diligence in detecting this disturbing activity and for immediately bringing this matter to our attention.”

In a statement, MassDOT spokesman Sara Lavoie said that Fanguiaire is a program coordinator for the RMV’s Merit Rating Board assigned to the RMV’s headquarters in Quincy. He was hired in April 2004.

In the statement, MassDOT said the agency’s IT department noticed an “irregularity’’ on Fanguiaire’s computer last November and then alerted Coakley’s office, which investigates crimes on state property.

He was arrested at RMV’s Quincy headquarters Wednesday night “following an interview with law enforcement,’’ MassDOT said in the statement.

Coakley said in her statement that State Police searched Fanguiaire’s RMV office and Weymouth home and recovered USB drives containing “several images and video files containing alleged child pornography.’’ The investigation is continuing.

MassDOT said it had placed Fanguiaire on an unpaid suspension. According to state records, Fanguiaire earned $73,955 in 2013.State work is tough!

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that a former special needs director for Stoneham schools preyed on hundreds of teenage girls whom he met on the Internet by posing as a teenager himself and enticing them to engage in sexual acts in online chats while he recorded them on video.

Steven Orloff, 48, of Framingham, also allegedly hid a camera in the bathroom of his home to secretly record two teenage girls that he had a family relationship with as they entered the shower, officials said.

“This was someone who was very manipulative, incredibly so, over a long time, who preyed upon several hundred young girls,” Assistant US Attorney Stacy Belf said in federal court in Boston Tuesday.

Belf asked US Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal to hold Orloff without bail pending his trial. He faces a mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence, and up to 30 years in prison, on some charges, and Belf called him a danger to the community who would flee if released.

Orloff’s lawyer, Hank Brennan, argued that there is no evidence that Orloff would commit any crimes or would flee if released. He said Orloff posted $70,000 bail and has worn an electronic monitoring bracelet since his arrest on state charges last year, and he has been working building homes and paying child support.

Boal said she will decide whether to release Orloff at a later time. During a hearing Tuesday, prosecutors portrayed him as a predator who manipulated teenage girls.

“There were several hundred victims contacted throughout the country, throughout the world,” David DiSanzo, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Unit, testified during a detention hearing Tuesday. He described the girls as ranging in age from 11 to 15.

“They were all minors,” he said.

Investigators were led to Orloff after the parents of a 15-year-old girl in Maine discovered she had taken nude photos of herself on an Apple iPod Touch, a tablet-like device that connects to the Internet.Meaning the NSA got a look, too!

The girl told authorities that she had shared the pictures with unknown people on the Internet, include a person who called himself Jason Jaffe and claimed to be 14 years old. Authorities determined that Jaffe was Orloff.I'm so glad I'm only sharing out of date stories from the Boston Globe.

The girl also told authorities that she had online conversations with Orloff through Skype, in which she undressed for him and engaged in sexual conduct. She never saw him, though, because he claimed his camera was broken, according to court records.

Orloff was charged in state court with posing a child in the nude. Authorities later searched his computer and found more than 200,000 lines of instant messages and chat logs, “as well as substantial online footprint of social media websites” frequented by teenagers, according to court records.Related(?): Government created virus plants child porn on your computer then they arrest youThe government is the world's largest collection of hackers, too!

He also had photos of children engaging in sexual acts and a homemade movie of two nude girls he had family relationships with. DiSanzo said the movie was filmed with a camera Orloff hid in a plant in his bathroom.

“You can see a picture of his face as he is setting the camera up,” DiSanzo said.

The Boston Herald reported that the mother of one of the girls, who was a foster child, received a letter from the state Department of Children and Families informing her that a social worker supported allegations that Orloff sexually abused the girl. He has not been charged with any sexual abuse. The letter was included in a civil suit accusing the department of neglect, the Herald reported.

DiSanzo said investigators did not find any evidence that Orloff had any physical contact with any of his alleged victims, and none of the pictures were of students from the Stoneham schools. His job with the school district ended after his arrest.

DiSanzo said that Orloff contacted most of his alleged victims through Skype and, without showing his face, posed as Jaffe and posted a public profile with a photo. Then, he allegedly contacted teenage girls and manipulated them into engaging in sex acts, which he recorded. “He’s professing how he wants to further their relationship,” DiSanzo said. “Ultimately, the end game is the sexual acts.”

GROTON – A fire at a historic farm in the Nashoba Valley has devastated a beloved local institution and left a huge hole in the locally grown food movement across the state.

Blood Farm in West Groton, a family business that has employed seven generations of the Blood family, is one of only two USDA-approved slaughterhouses in Massachusetts. After an electrical fire destroyed the farm’s smokehouse and meat processing facility early Sunday morning, the farmers who depend on the slaughterhouse have been left scrambling as they try to find another way to bring their meat to market….

Sharon Blood, the office manager on the farm, said that about 20 employees would be out of work and that the financial impact could ripple further, to the many businesses that rely on the farm, from local co-ops to high-end restaurants in Boston….Related: Unemployed Unfit For Upscale Restaurants

A Republican lawyer, John C. Chapman, served under then-Governor Mitt Romney in several capacities, including as commissioner of the Department of Industrial Accidents, which oversees the workers’ compensation system in the state.

Chapman, a first-time candidate, describes himself as a fiscal conservative as well as a supporter of abortion rights and same-sex marriage.Translation: he's just like any other puke Massachusetts Repuglican.

He said he wants to shake up a broken Washington.Sigh. It's not broke if you are Israel, Wall Street, the war machine, a well-connected interest, friend, or corporation, and a political puppet living lavish lifestyles at taxpayer expense.

“I am running for Congress because Washington has grown polarized, become more arrogant, and lost touch with the people it represents,” Chapman, 49, said in a statement on his website….That I agree with, and the color highlight means nothing there. Both are to blame.

Steve Koczela, president of the nonpartisan MassINC Polling Group, said that with the right candidate, Republicans might have a chance to put the district in play.And the music plays on in the chairs of politics.

“The numbers do say that the district could be competitive: Obama won it, but so did Scott Brown in 2012 and Gabriel Gomez in 2013,” he said, referring to the Republican former senator and the GOP nominee in last year’s US Senate special election respectively.

Democrats in Washington do not see the district as fertile ground for a Republican. But in blue Massachusetts, it is one of only two districts many Republicans see as potentially competitive….Also see:

Boston private equity firm Bain Capital has agreed to buy a majority stake in Bob’s Discount Furniture, the retailer known for television commercials featuring founder Bob Kaufman and his “no gimmick” sales pledge on merchandise like the Bob-O-Pedic mattress.

Bain will purchase a controlling interest of the Manchester, Conn., discount furniture business from another private equity firm for about $350 million, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Bain said Monday that it agreed to purchase the 47-store company with plans to expand its business into new markets.

The private equity firm has developed deep retail experience by purchasing many well-known companies. Now, it will take over a furniture chain that has bombarded television screens with quirky ads for more than 20 years….

Bob’s Discount Furniture has grown by about two stores a years since Kaufman, a former waterbed salesman, and his cousin, Gene Rosenberg, opened the first company store in Newington, Conn., in 1991….

WORCESTER — A Worcester dentist charged with killing his wife, whose body was found outside below a smashed third-floor window of their Princeton home, was freed on $5,000 bail Thursday after he pleaded not guilty.

Roger Desilets Jr., 69, was indicted last month on charges of manslaughter and assault and battery in the death of Kathleen Desilets, 65, in December 2011.

Roger Desilets told investigators that he and his wife had an argument about his extramarital affair and that she went upstairs to the bedroom and smashed the window with a chair before either falling or jumping out.

Kathleen Desilets died of blunt trauma of the torso with a laceration of the heart and fractures of the ribs and spine, according to her death certificate. She also had bruises on her arms and legs and a bump on her head, court documents show.

Prosecutors have not discussed the case or said what led them to charge the dentist with manslaughter.

Roger Desilets’ lawyer, Edward Ryan Jr., said he has not been told on what basis his client was charged, and that was not discussed in court.

‘‘I have no idea what they allege my client did,’’ Ryan said. ‘‘I do know that on this tragic night, Roger Desilets had nothing to do with his wife’s demise. We’re confident at trial he will be vindicated completely.’’

Toxicology tests confirmed that Kathleen Desilets had been drinking and took Valium shortly before her death, Ryan said.

Federal prosecutors want a career criminal from Dorchester to spend just over 18 years in prison for his conviction on a gun charge, citing his lengthy, violent record that includes several armed robberies and attacks.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors recommended a 220-month sentence for Samuel O. Dixon, 46, writing that he “long ago committed himself to a lifetime of crime, mostly violent, and that previous terms of imprisonment have done nothing to alter his commitment to his craft.”Too bad he wasn't a government. They get away with that stuff all the time.

His public defender, Christopher Skinner, said he will request a 15-year term.

Dixon was convicted in US District Court in Boston in September of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, stemming from his arrest in February 2011 after police found a loaded .380-caliber pistol in his apartment, along with narcotics and a digital scale, court records show. Boston police searched his residence after he allegedly sold heroin three times to an informant, prosecutors said. However, a drug charge was later dropped.

In Friday’s filing, authorities laid out Dixon’s extensive criminal history, which they said has spanned 27 years….

A Dorchester man accused of trying to lure two teenagers into prostitution and who allegedly had sex with one of them in Providence had promised that he could help them earn tens of thousands of dollars and live a glamorous life, according to federal court documents made public Friday.

“We can make between 6 to 10 grand a month,” Anthony Pledger allegedly told one girl, a 16-year-old from the Brockton area, on a social media website, according to court records.Then the NSA was watching.

The girl indicated that she was not interested; Pledger insisted, according to court data.

“I’ll teach you everything you should know, and I [will] put you in your own car, crib, whatever you want,” he allegedly said, using abbreviations and writing in slang at times.

Pledger, 26, was charged this week in US District Court in Boston with sex trafficking of minors, attempted sex trafficking of minors, and transportation of minors in interstate commerce for purpose of prostitution.

He was initially arrested by State Police in October, but the transfer of the case to federal court elevates the charges and the punishment he faces.

Pledger faces a minimum of 10 years and possibly life in prison on some charges. He has not yet appeared in US District Court in Boston, but pleaded not guilty in Rhode Island.Being a pimp just isn't what it used to be.

Authorities said that Pledger contacted the 16-year-old girl in October 2013 through an Internet site and offered to introduce her to prostitution, telling her that he would protect her and that he would not introduce her to dangerous clients. After several conversations, the girl refused, but she told Pledger that her cousin, 15 at the time, was interested, according to court records.

Pledger drove to Brockton in October and picked up the 15-year-old, according to court records. She told him she was 18. He then drove her into Boston and plied her with alcohol and marijuana.

At one point, according to court records, the girl asked to return home, and the girl’s mother text messaged Pledger, saying she was looking for her “15 yr. old baby girl,” according to court records. Pledger denied knowing the girl, however. Instead, he had sex with her, according to the court records.

Pledger, according to the court records, brought the girl to a home in Providence, where he allegedly had sex with her again, then brought her back to the Boston area, where they met her cousin. Pledger also picked up a third girl who told the two younger girls that she worked for Pledger and was going to engage in prostitution that night and make money. Pledger brought the girl to a Dedham hotel, according to court records.

Pledger and the two teenagers returned to Providence. By then, the 15-year-old girl’s mother notified police who tracked him to a home there using a GPS signal from his phone, according to court records. Authorities found the girls in the basement and arrested Pledger.

Pledger had denied having sexual relations with the teenager, telling police: “They told me they were 18 . . . I didn’t do anything with them, I didn’t kiss them, hug them, touch them. I didn’t have sex with them.”

Paul Levenson is a longtime criminal prosecutor who doesn’t shy away from a courtroom fight. He relishes the chance to bring a complex fraud case to trial and convince a jury he’s right.

That’s the kind of lawyer the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief, Mary Jo White, had in mind when she set out to put more bite into federal regulation of the investment industry. In choosing Levenson to lead the SEC in Boston, she tapped an assistant US attorney with 24 years of experience, most recently pursuing white-collar crime.

Now Levenson, 56, is bringing his criminal-law experience to the SEC’s civil oversight of $8 trillion worth of hedge funds, mutual funds, and brokerages across the region.

“A huge chunk of the retirement savings of America is under management in New England,’’ said Levenson, who took over the SEC office in late October. “Making sure that it is safe, making sure that people who administer it and manage it are treating customers fairly, are just critical missions.’’

It’s a tall order, as the world saw when the SEC and other regulators missed the growth of risky investments on balance sheets of banks and brokerage giants in the run-up to the financial crisis.

And Levenson faces a learning curve of his own, now leading a staff of 150 that’s responsible for routine examinations as well as enforcement, up from a team of about a dozen at the US attorney’s office.

Wiry and energetic, Levenson is a Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate who wasn’t even sure he wanted to be a lawyer. His first job was as a union organizer for garment workers.

At the US attorney’s office, he prosecuted cases such as Centennial Technologies Inc., one of the hottest stocks of 1996, after its chief executive inflated sales and earnings figures to pump up the share price. Emanuel Pinez, the CEO, was sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay $150 million in restitution.

Earlier in his career, Levenson won a conviction against Trevor Watson, in a South End shooting case. Watson served prison time but became a repeat offender who later stabbed former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce.

Proving financial fraud usually involves “a complicated, nuanced story. And yet at the heart of it, there are real questions of right and wrong, good and evil,’’ Levenson said. “Bringing that to bear in a way that 12 ordinary people can understand it clearly is both important and challenging.’’What is so complicated about rate-rigging and theft?

Colleagues call Levenson smart and cool under pressure.

“He’s a great trial attorney,’’ said Carmen Ortiz, the US attorney in Boston, who worked with Levenson for 16 years. Bringing Levenson into the SEC, she said, signals that the agency will be “more aggressive and inquisitive about matters that come before them. I think Paul will direct his staff that way.’’As if the killer of Swartz has any credibility!

White, a former prosecutor who took the top job at the SEC in April, has made clear that she wants to take more cases to trial. That’s a departure from the agency’s usual approach of pursuing settlements with Wall Street firms and small-town brokers accused of breaking the law, in which even bad actors often do not have to admit they did anything wrong.We $hall $ee.

Walter Ricciardi, a former Boston SEC chief, said the trend toward hiring criminal prosecutors at the SEC started several years ago but is clearly continuing under White. He said that, in his experience, people who are skilled at criminal investigations do well on the civil side.

Levenson also said he will readily share information with his former colleagues on the criminal side, as his predecessor, David Bergers, is widely said to have done. Collaboration among regulators has taken a higher priority since the financial crisis, and following the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, an epic fraud the SEC failed to detect, even after the Boston whistle-blower Harry Markopolos brought it to their attention.Related: U.S. Government Knew About Madoff Scheme Since 1960And they did nothing about it! Also see: For JPMorgan, a $1.7b Madoff fineI $uppo$e that is $trike two!

In the Madoff scandal, Boston SEC regulators could not persuade their New York counterparts to pick up the case.

“Every responsible organization should take any setback as an opportunity to look hard at themselves and see what can they do better,’’ Levenson said.

Another more recent shift at the SEC has led to the creation of specialty units of people who focus on particular areas, such as asset management and structured products. Ricciardi said that reorganizing people at the agency around areas of expertise should help detect problems earlier. “You spend all your time investigating just those things, you’re going to be a lot more sophisticated,’’ he said.

The head of one of those units sits in the office next door to Levenson’s, overlooking downtown Boston from a 25th-floor perch. LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt oversees the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions group, an area of particular interest to Levenson.Btw, Wall Street stole those, too.

Other resources are tight at the agency, where the budget is frozen due to the federal sequester, but the SEC isn’t skimping on its commitment to sort through 3,000 tips that come in nationwide over the phone, via e-mail, and by regular mail. In Boston, two attorneys and a paralegal are assigned to the tips, complaints, and referrals program.

That’s good by Levenson, who’s a big believer “you always take the call,’’ so that no leads are missed. He’s known to be good at separating the strong cases from the weak, a trait colleagues say will behoove him at the SEC.

“He’ll be willing to push a case to trial if he needs to,’’ said John Falvey Jr., a partner at Goodwin Procter in Boston and a former assistant US attorney who led the Centennial prosecution.

Now sitting on the opposing side of the table, Falvey expects to get a fair hearing when he faces Levenson. But he doesn’t expect a pushover.

“He’s a very cool customer,’’ Falvey said. “But he can be a ferociously hard worker. And he can be tough.’’

"SEC’s cochief of enforcement George Canellos leaving" New York Times Syndicate, January 04, 2014

The Wall Street regulator who oversaw and closed some of the most prominent investigations into the financial crisis disclosed his departure from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, a move that could portend a subtle shift in the agency’s enforcement agenda.

George Canellos, who was cochief of enforcement at the SEC, will leave after a tenure that spanned one of the most significant periods in the agency’s 80-year history. Canellos joined in the wake of the 2008 crisis, after the agency’s failure to detect Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme made it a symbol of regulatory incompetence.

Nearly five years later, as the agency has regained its footing, Canellos leaves behind a productive yet complicated legacy.

He presided over an onslaught of insider trading cases, a crackdown that ensnared some of Wall Street’s most vaunted hedge funds, including SAC Capital Advisors and Galleon Group. Canellos is expected to join a private law firm.Related: Slow Saturday Special: SAC Case Makes Me Sick

Both Putnam Investments funds focus on businesses that carry a lot of debt. David Glancy’s equity fund is just stocks of debt-laden companies, while the Capital Spectrum fund invests in stocks, junk bonds, and other securities issued by such companies.

The world of high-leverage stocks and junk bonds can be a volatile, risky place. The idea: Make lots of money when times are good and try not to lose your shirt when markets go south. The past year has been a time for opportunity.Translation: State Street and Wall Street are back to bu$ine$$ as usual despite Dodd-Frank and more regulation, and when times are bad don't worry, the government will be on the way with another bailout. We've seen this movie before.

“The history of leveraged finance is that it’s a really good movie,” says Glancy. “There are great stories, great disasters.”I don't want to $ee anymore of this $hit-slop!

*******************

Glancy’s funds defy any standard investment description. He owns stocks of some companies that do not fit the high-leverage profile, simply because he considers them undervalued….

Both funds are permitted to short securities — to bet that those investments will lose value in the future — though neither do much of that now.So who is his driver?!!!

All that cash provides safety and investment flexibility, but it dampens returns when markets are hot. Both funds would have earned a lot more this year if they had been fully invested.

“I don’t have a big cash balance just to say I have it,” says Glancy. “I feel better about my ability to engage an investment opportunity when I don’t have to sell something” else to buy it….

Glancy, 52, has lots of experience in the world of high leverage. He started his career as an accountant but moved on to Standard & Poor’s to analyze investments during the first junk bond gold rush of the 1980s….And now there is another one!

"The study, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, is just the latest evidence of how our attitudes influence our perception. The camera does not lie, but our minds may…. Only if you "believe," right? (Btw, I am perfectly comfortable saying I don't know).Except the camera does in fact lie, be it9/11, Sandy Hook, the Boston Marathon bombings, or chemical weapons use in Syria. Even the fireworks are faked!

--more--"Related: Sundance Film Festival FeatureI guess she is right because my media got it wrong."The New York Times redesigned website contain[s] a platform featuring content paid for by advertisers. Such content, known as “native advertising,” has raised concerns among some journalists that it could blur the lines between the editorial product and material provided by advertisers. In a letter to employees last month, however, The Times’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., promised that native ads will be clearly distinguished as paid posts and that the content would not be produced by newsroom employees."That made me laugh because it already is a propaganda pre$$!!

At the roast that followed, the 68-year-old Dame Helen Mirren was a great sport even as she was teased about her ample bosom (“Helen has bigger boobs than Dame Judy Dench,” one of the Pudding players announced from the stage)….

But the actress played her part with aplomb. Asked at one point to twerk, Mirren had a moment’s hesitation — “Oh, [expletive],” she muttered — before getting down to it, to the great delight of the audience….Just having that image in my head makes Miley's moment pale in comparison, never mind the reaction of the crowd. No longer the picture of royalty.

She then made a peace sign and, like Miley Cyrus, stuck out her tongue. The crowd roared its approval….The more I think about it the more the peace sign has turned into a meaningless symbol of marketing. It's on clothing and messages all over the place, a stark juxtaposition to the war-searching empire of global conquest.If you want to you can "bat" your eye at the other "catty" winners in what seems like a very strange focus or theme for the award.

Toronto’s favorite black sheep, Mayor Rob Ford, is rising to the defense of fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, who was charged with assault Wednesday for allegedly hitting a Toronto limousine driver several times in the back of the head last month. The news broke a few hours after the teenage pop star’s attorney entered a separate not guilty plea in Florida to drunken-driving and other charges. Ford, who has admitted smoking crack while in a drunken stupor and is being sued for supposedly orchestrating the jailhouse beating of his sister’s ex-boyfriend, defended Bieber when a US radio host called Bieber ‘‘Canada’s worst export.’’No, that would have been Terrance and Philip.

Ke$ha has checked into rehab to treat an eating disorder. The ‘‘Tik Tok’’ singer said in a statement provided by her spokesman Friday that she’ll be unavailable for the next 30 days while she seeks treatment for an undisclosed eating disorder. ‘‘I’m a crusader for being yourself and loving yourself, but I’ve found it hard to practice,’’ she said. The pop star, 26, who is a vegetarian, said she wants to ‘‘learn to love myself again, exactly as I am.’’

Thursday, January 30, 2014

"Laurie Leshin has helped send robots to Mars, overseen NASA’s largest science center, commanded research on human space exploration, and even has a piece of the solar system named after her.Then she would know all about alien life on the moon.

The 48-year-old geochemist and space scientist’s next mission: leading Worcester Polytechnic Institute as the first woman president in its 149-year history. WPI 's showing in the DARPA robot challenge in December was good….

"The Pentagon’s DARPA Robotics Challenge 2013 Trials was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA called the event a Grand Challenge, intended to open the way for an era in which a generation of mobile robots will aid in disaster situations, traveling and working where humans cannot. The research agency is trying to develop systems to use in situations like the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. DARPA officials stressed the awards were not final but are pending contract negotiations with the US government." Nothing toworry about there.

--more--" Maybe you should ask Kenny instead. If you ask me, I would say I do not discount alien ancestors or creators, far from it; however, the silence in some quarters and loudness of others leads to me to believe that those long ago beings are now extinct and are not returning. It happens, you know, and one day it will happen to humans on planet Earth. I think the final thing that convinced me was the top alien plot for world takeover being collaboration with Nazis under the South Pole. That and the fracking and oil-drilling in the midst of hidden alien bases.

"For nearly 35 years, the 18th-century Chinese jade artwork was missing, stolen out of a display case at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum. On Tuesday, the precious object returned, the result of an investigation that stretched more than 8,000 miles, from the Midwest to a prestigious auction house in Hong Kong. The US Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, which eventually seized the jade, returned it to Harvard on Tuesday. The object, donated to the museum in 1942, disappeared just after Thanksgiving 1979….

"Comic actor Dave Madden, who was best known for his role as Reuben Kinkaid, who managed the Partridge family band and regularly clashed with its impish pre-teen bassist, played by Danny Bonaduce, died.

During his career, he also appeared on such series as ‘‘Bewitched,’’ “Barney Miller,’’ “Happy Days,’’ “The Love Boat,’’ and ‘‘Fantasy Island.’’I remember him well.

"Russell Johnson — an actor who made a living as the Professor, the brains of a bunch of sweetly clueless, self-involved, hopelessly naïve island castaways, on the hit sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” which was seen on CBS from 1964 to 1967 and still lives on in reruns — died.Another crap comedy by Sherwood Shwartz.

He also appeared in two episodes of “The Twilight Zone” involving time travel. In one, he tries to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; in the other, about a time machine that accidentally rescues a 19th-century murderer from a hanging, he plays the inventor, a professor….Those were great episodes, and he also starred in This Island Earth, as featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.
--more--"

She was always unconventional. Patricia Campatelli campaigned for Suffolk County register of probate out of an East Boston social club long associated with bookies, placing her laptop on the pool table at the unlicensed bar and working the phone amid “Vote for Patty’’ posters.

Now, weeks after allegedly punching an employee and being placed on administrative leave not once, but twice, in her one-year tenure, Campatelli hopes to meet with court officials Tuesday to clear her path to come back to her $122,000-a-year job.

But some colleagues do not want her back, saying they see her as a crude and vengeful boss who makes them feel physically threatened when she is angry….

"Farm measure OK’d by House; $1 trillion bill heads to Senate for final passage" by Ron Nixon | New York Times, January 30, 2014

WASHINGTON — Compared with earlier, more contentious votes on the farm bill, Wednesday’s vote was largely bipartisan. Many Democrats who had opposed it because of cuts to the food stamp program supported it. A number of Republicans, including many who wanted deeper cuts to the food stamps, also voted for the bill’s passage that cut food stamps and expanded crop insurance.Oh, WOW! Food stamps for hungry woman and children are cut while corporate subsidies were increased!Related: State of the Union Set the Tone For 2014 ElectionsI couldn't hear it over the growling stomach.

The bill does provide a $200 million increase in financing to food banks, though many said the money might not be enough to offset the expected surge in demand for food.Literally tossing you back crumbs.

Farm programs were not spared from the cuts in the new bill. The most significant change to farm programs is the elimination of a subsidy known as direct payments. These payments, about $5 billion a year, are paid to farmers whether they grow crops or not and the issue had become politically toxic over the last several years as farm income has risen to record levels.What that vague and generalized statement from the whoreporate pre$$ means is Big Agro corporations are cleaning up when it comes to profits -- and now the program has been expanded!

--more--"I know there is fraud in the programs, but let's not go to extremes. Whatever the amount, it's a hell of a lot le$$ than the trillions in bank$ter frauds and war profiteer cost overruns. Staying on the campaign trail:

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of homeowners would get a reprieve from higher flood insurance premiums under legislation speeding through the Senate, powered by coastal lawmakers telling horror stories of people at risk of losing their homes.Okay, the first thing I notice is I haven't seen the Senate move this fast since the Wall Street banks extorted trillions in bailouts way back in 2007. The second thing is the Senate didn't seem too concerned during the years banks were fraudulently foreclosing on homes. Now all of a $udden(?) they have noticed because insurance rates are rising?

The bill, which is on track to win Senate passage on Thursday, faces a rockier road in the House, where a more modest plan is being developed to ease the impact of Congress’s overhaul of the federal flood insurance program two years ago.

The legislation would delay for up to four years huge premium increases now set to phase in next year under updated government flood maps. It also would allow homeowners with subsidized insurance policies to pass them on to people who buy their homes.

The sweeping overhaul passed in 2012 was designed to make the federal flood insurance program more financially stable and bring insurance rates more in line with the real risk of flooding.

Opponents of the new legislation say it essentially unravels changes to the flood insurance program that put taxpayers on the hook for $24 billion in losses by encouraging building in risky areas.The pre$$ isn't saying it, but the rising rates were mostly hitting richers with beachfront homes serving as their second. That's why Senate action is so swift as unemployment has elapsed and food stamps are cut.

The changes were aimed at making the program more financially sound and would stop requiring homeowners in less risky areas to essentially subsidize below-market insurance rates for homeowners in locales more at risk of flooding.

‘‘This passed unanimously out of the Banking Committee in 2011, and we’re already undoing it,’’ griped Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican. ‘‘It’s just so depressing.’’

"Obama takes new initiatives on the road" by Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear | New York Times, January 30, 2014

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — President Obama began a two-day, four-state campaign-style swing on Wednesday aimed at promoting an “opportunity agenda” that he said would create jobs, raise incomes, retrain workers, and improve education.Already in campaign mode. I notice it is NOT an EQUALITY AGENDA.

At a steel plant in West Mifflin, outside Pittsburgh, and at a Costco warehouse in suburban Maryland outside Washington, Obama declared that he would move forward on his priorities even if lawmakers continued to block many of his top initiatives.

“I’m hoping Congress goes along with this, but I’m not going to wait,” he told a crowd of steelworkers here as he described his ideas for enhancing retirement security, echoing a refrain from his State of the Union message on Tuesday night.Why not? He has waited five years while enabling, encouraging, and abetting the very problem he is saying he will fix. And here is another consideration since the conventional wi$dom is anything Obummer does will be good: what if the measures he takes waving his wand, 'er, pen around makes things worse?

Summing up the litany of small-bore initiatives he plans to enact using his executive authority, he said, “These are real, practical, achievable solutions to help shift the odds back a bit in favor of working Americans.”You don't have any god-damn authoritae!

The tour, which was to continue Thursday in Milwaukee and Nashville, is meant to build momentum for a president who has struggled to advance major policies and has lost some support in the polls since his reelection. Aides said he wanted to escape the restrictions of being a virtual prime minister, absorbed by what Congress is doing, and demonstrate a broader leadership less dependent on the legislative process.When are we going to have to salute him?

“The president is not president of Washington,” said Jay Carney, White House press secretary. “He’s president of America, and there’s a lot of activity happening around America.” But he added that Obama was not giving up on Congress to focus on his executive power. “He’s doing both,” Carney said.

At his Pennsylvania stop, Obama signed an executive memorandum and handed it to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, telling him to create a new “starter” retirement savings program called MyRa. The program is meant for lower-wage workers who typically do not put money aside for retirement.Wait until you get a load of how HE wants to "help" you!

The new program will allow workers to start a fund with as little as $25 and contribute as little as $5 per pay period.Now let's see, with the cut in food stamps per week let me $ee if I can $till make ends meet that I couldn't meet before with an additional $5 a week out of available funds.What an A$$HOLE PRESIDENT!! STEALING MONEY from POOR PEOPLE while the WEALTH continues to be CONCENTRATED at the top!

The contributions would come after taxes, but the income built over time would not be taxed until retirement, and there would be a guaranteed return with no risk of losing the investment. After accumulating $15,000, the fund would be converted into a regular Roth IRA.Oh, it is going to be TAXED TWICE, too! That is the "FAVOR" Obummer is doing for you!And DON'T WORRY! This government is going to sit on and safeguard your loot for you! You can TRUST THEM! If you believe that one, Amurkn, I've got some of Saddam's nuclear weapons to sell you! This is so OFFENSIVELY OUTRAGEOUS!

Lew said the idea was to provide an opportunity for people who otherwise would not save.Do you understand how ill this breakfa$t is? Robbing the poor while wealth and corporations sit on billions and trillions in ca$h.

“We think this fills a space that, very importantly, we can do by our own authority,” he told reporters on Air Force One as the president flew to Pennsylvania on Wednesday. “When people start saving, they get into the habit of saving.”Translation: you will never miss the $5 the government wants so it can wave a revenue stream at bond buyers! What a F***ING THIEF is this PRESIDENT!

At his earlier stop in Maryland, Obama focused on his support for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, something Congress has resisted amid criticism that it could hurt businesses in a still-fragile economy. During his national address Tuesday, he said he would raise the wage floor for future federal contract workers on his own authority.Cheap talk!

"Democrats would love to make raising the federal minimum wage a major issue in the midterm congressional elections this year, but the debate has shifted to individual states…. In Massachusetts, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, has balked at that plan, saying any increase in the minimum wage should be offset by other measures that would reduce business costs. Specifically, he has linked a wage increase to overhauling the state’s unemployment insurance system."Which is already a pos, but we already have one of the mo$t generou$ minimum wages around and the one-party Democrat rule to assure that people are not in poverty and treated like s***.Related:What to Expect for the 2014 ElectionsAnd it is exactly what we are getting, pffffft!

--more--"He and his had a chance to do this when they had a filibuster-proof majority, and all we got was a crappy corporate health law that doesn't work.Let's take a look ahead:

"Party insiders exaggerate their own wisdom as 2016 looms" January 30, 2014

…. Voters often resist premature coronations of candidates by insiders. And even when those insiders succeed in pushing a nominee through, they don’t guarantee wins for their party in the general election. Lengthy, grass roots-driven campaigns, though, can provide an invaluable service to voters and parties.I read that and think unreal after what happened to Ron Paul, but then, well, you know…. I gue$$ it is just a way to let off steam.

In 2012, top Republican donors tried to hasten the selection process by rallying behind Mitt Romney, bludgeoning his competition with a barrage of super PAC ads. Restore Our Future, the main pro-Romney super PAC, spent about $40 million on negative ads targeting other Republicans; at times during the primary, it was outspending the Romney campaign itself. GOP voters flirted with a succession of alternatives to Romney, but the overwhelming advantage created by his super PAC support hastened the exit of Romney’s competition, leaving many GOP voters frustrated with their lack of choices. The Republican super PACs got their way. Then Romney lost that November.

For the Democrats, on the other hand, the drawn-out 2008 primary ought to have demonstrated the value of widespread participation. Democratic donors rallied to Hillary Clinton early on. But the slog from state to state provided a much better testing ground than the party backrooms, exposing Clinton’s surprisingly brittle campaign organization. Barack Obama went on to win two successive presidential elections, both by comfortable margins, and passed health care reform, a goal that has eluded Democratic leaders for decades.

Now, some Democratic leaders are again trying to clear the field for Clinton long before the primaries even begin, with a top Democratic super PAC already backing her. Meanwhile, the Republicans are tweaking their rules to make it even easier for a well-funded candidate to wrap up the GOP nomination quickly. The parties would be better off staying on the sidelines and letting voters decide, even if it takes longer to produce a nominee….I agree with that, but for the propaganda pre$$ the usefulness is in the long-running distraction of politics for the public and people.

The unsettling conclusion from a poll conducted last autumn by The Pew Research Center and Council on Foreign Relations (where I serve on the board of directors).

**********************

On the surface, American public skepticism about our global role is understandable. Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has fought two deeply unpopular land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the longest in our history. We suffered through the most damaging economic crisis since the Great Depression and watched as pressures rose on the poor and middle class. President Obama spoke for millions of Americans when he said in 2011 that it was “time to focus on nationbuilding here at home.”

But there are worrisome signs that support for US international leadership is breaking down in Congress. On the far left of the Democratic Party, there is visibly less support for sustaining world-class military and diplomatic capabilities.They are taken for granted if not ignored so no need to listen.

Meanwhile, the Tea Party sometimes gives the impression it wants to dig a giant moat around the country with drawbridges pulled up — permanently — to separate us from the rest of the world.Oh, I LOVE IT! Nick Burns just validated me!Of course, us true Tea Party people (not controlled opposition corporate fronts) are not for a moat; we are anti-militari$m, anti-imperiali$m, and antiwar! I'm all for fair trade and exchange between peoples, but not in the form of corporate governance from globalist overlords! That's failed.

The problem with this line of thinking, of course, is that while isolation and retreat may have been perfectly rational responses to the world of 1814, they are recipes for foreign policy failure in the more highly integrated world of 2014. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans did not stop the 9/11 hijackers and won’t deter cyber criminals and terrorists waiting to strike in the future.What CRAP! See: AmeriKa Media Missing the Target

The global economy knits together every nation on earth. That is why an increasing number of American jobs depend on our ability to export, trade, and invest competitively overseas.

In a very real way, the fate of every person on earth is now linked as never before. That is the tangible import of climate change, human trafficking, and the drug and crime cartels that plague every country in the world.You left out nuclear annihilation, Nick -- the only link I see us sharing in that list you laid out. As for the rest, tell the government to stop doing such things.

The United States serves, as Princeton’s John Ikenberry puts it, as the global “system operator.” By any metric of power — political, military, economic — the United States is still, by far, the most influential country in the world. China, India, and Brazil — the three great rising powers — are neither ready nor willing to replace us. And we should not want to live in a world dominated in the future by an autocratic and bullying Beijing.Interesting how he did not mention Russia. As for the rest of the world, what is the difference between one autocratic bully or another? The difference is China builds, EUSrael destroys.

In her gripping 2013 book, “Those Angry Days,” Lynne Olson chronicled the titanic public battle between the isolationist hero Charles A. Lindbergh and the interventionist President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the Second World War. It was not at all a given in 1939 to 1941 that FDR would finally defeat the isolationists who would have kept us criminally neutral in the battle against Hitler.Lindbergh was indeed a hero (interesting date of speech, 'eh?). That is why he is demonized.

Fortunately, we face no isolationist movement in 2014 as dramatically powerful as Lindbergh and his allies in the US Senate before Pearl Harbor.Actually, the whole country feels that way because of the endless wars and lies that led to them. The American people have made it clear that we want no more wars. The failed effort in Syria shows that.

The main lesson of that time, however, applies today. The United States needs to lead internationally, however burdensome that may sometimes be.How many of your kids or grandkids serving, Nick?

But, many of America’s closest friends are worried about us.He means Israel and Saudi Arabia.

In London last week, I listened to a litany of concerns about the consistency and durability of US global leadership. Could it be, some wondered, that in our understandable desire to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, we may have pulled back too much from the rest of the Middle East, especially Syria and Egypt?See where he wants us going next?

In a recent column that should be read carefully in Washington’s corridors of power, the influential British Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens warned starkly: “The US remains the only power that matters everywhere, but Washington no longer thinks that everywhere matters.”OMG! See: CIA Chauffeur

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.